In order to ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of logistics processes, it is useful to achieve the highest possible degree of automation. An example of this is the method for transferring material from a rail-bound driven roller conveyor to a drivable roller conveyor constituting a storage area and the device suitable for carrying out the method as described in DE 28 39 496 A1. Furthermore, a conveying system for transporting flight luggage is known from DE 10 2009 019 135 A1, in which self-propelling and individually driven containers are used.
In the high-bay warehouses sector, for example, the use of automated conveying systems has been common practice for several years. Because of the relatively large amount of space available in these high-bay warehouses, it was possible to implement these systems there from very early on. A relevant method and a device suitable for carrying out the method are described e.g. in DE 10 2013 020 716 A1. In other logistics sectors, e.g. in smaller warehouses, automated systems have been and are being introduced according to the state of technical development. The smaller and more complex a logistics sector, the more costly and technically challenging the implementation of automated conveying systems. In DE 10 2011 054 310 A1, for example, an assembly for transporting products from the tobacco industry is described, which has rails and autonomously moving transport vehicles adapted to the rails.
In order to reduce turnaround times of transport vehicles, systems have also been developed over the last few decades which, for example, enable the cargo of a transport vehicle to be unloaded not manually but by means of an unloading system. In the paper transport sector, for example, systems are known which enable a complete load floor of a transport vehicle together with rolls of paper arranged on the load floor to be moved out of the transport vehicle in order to unload it in one piece in this way.
A variety of technical solutions are also known from other logistics and engineering sectors for simplifying and rationalizing logistics processes. For example, in DE 74 31 495 U a battery-changing device is described, which is movable on casters and which has rails for batteries arranged on a frame. In addition, from DE 23 09 711 A, a rail-bound transport system is known, having self-driven, steerable carriages which are controllable on the rails of the transport system by means of passive control means.
In certain specialized logistics sectors, it has previously been impossible to achieve a useful degree of automation of a loading operation. Purely by way of example, the resupplying of aircraft with catering goods may be mentioned. The catering goods here are located in catering trolleys, which are arranged inside a container. This container is often in the form of a high-lift box of a high-lift box lorry. Because of their varied nature, these still have to be loaded manually by logistics staff. This leads to prolonged turnaround times, which reduces the operating time of the aircraft in the air and thus increases the operating costs of the aircraft. The conveying systems known from the high-bay warehousing sector cannot be used in this specialized sector since, despite advances in systems miniaturization, they are still too big and heavy for this type of use, particularly since, in the high-lift box lorries that are often used, the load compartment is lifted up to the level of a loading hatch of an aircraft by means of a lifting device. In these systems, the weight of the high-lift box should be kept as low as possible for reasons of efficiency and safety.
This special logistics procedure is likewise unsuitable for automation with the known systems for loading and unloading goods vehicles since, as a rule, the cargo in a high-lift box is not intended exclusively for one aircraft; instead, one high-lift box is intended for loading multiple aircraft. It is therefore necessary for individual items of cargo to be removable from the high-lift box in a targeted manner.
With the technical solutions currently available, therefore, it is not possible to unload general cargo, e.g. catering trolleys, from a load compartment, e.g. a high-lift box of a high-lift box lorry, in an automated and targeted manner.